In related news, a private fleet of 18 armed patrol boats is being outfitted to protect ships transiting the Gulf of Aden from from pirate attack.  The fleet will be operated by the Convoy Escort Programme (CEP), a British company launched by the international shipping insurers Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) and the Lloyds of London underwriters Ascot.  This “private navy” cost around US$ 70 million to set up and will be based in Djibouti. The patrol boats will convoy ships along the Internationally Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC).

Somali Pirate: EU Airstrike Destroyed Equipment

Bile Hussein, a pirate commander, said the attack along Somalia’s central coastline destroyed speed boats, fuel depots and an arms store.

“They destroyed our equipment to ashes. It was a key supplies center for us,” Hussein said. “The fuel contributed to the flames and destruction. Nothing was spared.”

He said nine speed boats were destroyed, and that three of them were on standby for hijackings. 

Attack helicopters took part in the attacks early in the morning on the mainland, an EU spokesman said.

Private navy planned to counter pirate raids

Piracy in the region is costing the global economy an estimated US$7 billion a year. For the ship owners alone, every vessel sailing through the waters off Somalia is charged additional insurance premiums of between $50,000 and $80,000.

Ships opting to carry their own armed guards can be charged an additional $18,000 and $60,000 per voyage by security companies.

Although the European Union is spending more than €8m (Dh37.94m) a year to maintain a naval force in the waters – EU NavFor – its warships still cannot provide close support to all merchant vessels.

The CEP, however, offers substantial savings to owners as well as protection from pirate attack. The CEP will buy insurance and use that to cover the ships in its convoys, so owners will no longer need to pay premiums, or hire security.

Instead, they will just pay a flat $30,000 to $40,000 per ship in the convoy.

Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.

In the previous post, we wondered what would be blamed on this ”supermoon.”  We now have the answer.  In a column in the Chicago Tribune, Liz Smith, gossip columnist and apparently an astrology buff writes: “World astrologists took plenty of notice recently when the “Super Moon” was close to Earth. Europeans gave it credit for the fact that the very next day the governments of France and Greece imploded!”   Really?  And we thought sailors were the superstitious ones.

Did the ‘Super Moon’ topple Greece and France?

Bark Picton Castle Arriving in New York Harbor 5/15/2012

From the Picton Castle website:

The ship is a completely refitted barque that observes the rigorous standards of Germanischer Lloyds for steel-hulled Cape Horners. She is 179 feet overall, with riveted steel hull, clear oiled-pine decks, steel masts, and wooden and steel yards. She carries 12,450 square feet of canvas sail. The ship also has a powerful 690 hp Burmeister & Wain alpha diesel engine for occasions when sailing is not feasible. The galley is on deck, and its 1893 cook stove is similar to those used on commercial sailing ships 100 years ago.

There are berths for 40 sail trainees and 12 professional crew members. (Usually about half our trainees are men and half women. Their ages range from 18 to 60+, with the majority under 35.) Sleeping accommodations are bunkroom style, in two tiers of pilot bunks. Bunks have curtains for privacy and individual reading lights.

The Picton Castle is a true working tall ship. Sail trainees participate fully in the ship’s operation: handling sails, scrubbing the deck, taking a turn at the wheel, raising anchor, hauling on lines, helping in the galley, going aloft (optional), and keeping lookout. There are training classes in seamanship and navigation, plenty of opportunities to learn square-rig sailing and, on the world voyages, to explore exotic tropical ports and islands.

The convention itself will be held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Despite using the ship for training and reports that the RNC will focus on “The Greatest Generation” among its patriotic themes, the Republican Committee on Arrangements has no plans to include the SS American Victory in its schedule of events and participants.

RNC security to train on American Victory ship

See also our recent post:  Re-Living History on the SS American Victory

Harper’s Weekly of June 14, 1862 recounts the escape:

One of the most heroic and daring adventures since the war commenced was undertaken and successfully accomplished by a party of negroes in Charleston on Monday night last. Nine colored men, comprising the pilot, engineers and crew of the rebel gunboat, Planter, took the vessel under their exclusive control, passed the batteries and forts in Charleston harbor, hoisted a white flag, ran out to the blockading squadron, and thence to Port Royal, via St. Helena Sound and Broad River, reaching the flagship Wabash shortly after ten o’clock last evening…

The Planter is a high-pressure, side-wheel steamer, one hundred and forty feet in length, and about fifty feet beam, and draws about five feet of water. She was built in Charleston, was formerly used as a cotton-boat, and is capable of carrying about 1,400 bales. On the organization of the navy, she was transformed into a gun-boat, and was the most valuable vessel the Confederates had at Charleston. Her armaments consisted of one 32-pound rifle gun forward, and a 24-pound howitzer aft. Besides, she had on board when she came into the harbor one seven-inch rifled gun, one eight-inch Columbiad, one eight-inch Howitzer, one long 32-pounder, and about two hundred rounds of ammunition, which had been consigned to Fort Ripley, and which would have been delivered at that fortification on Tuesday had not the designs of the Rebel authorities been frustrated. She was commanded by Captain Relay [sic], of the Confederate navy – all the other employees of the vessel, excepting the first and second mates, being persons of color.

The black engineers raised steam on the Planter, which left the dock at 3AM.   The American Civil War had begun in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina in 1861 with the rebel attack on Fort Sumter.   In order to escape, Robert Smalls would have to navigate the Planter past the guns of Fort Sumter.  The current was against them, however, and they didn’t pass Fort Sumter until after dawn.  Smalls donned the white shirt and naval jacket of the captain along with his distinctive straw hat. As they near the fort, they gave the appropriate whistle signals and Smalls and the Planter were waved by.  Once within range of the Union ships, Smalls struck the Confederate flag and raised a white flag made from a bed sheet.

The Planter was carrying as cargo one seven-inch rifled gun, one eight-inch Columbiad, one eight-inch Howitzer, one long 32-pounder, and about two hundred rounds of ammunition, in addition to her own guns, one 32-pound rifle gun forward, and a 24-pound howitzer aft.  As Planter came alongside the Union ship, Smalls is said to have raised his hat high in the air and shouted, “Good morning, sir! I have brought you some of the old United States’ guns, sir!”

Perhaps more valuable that the guns, Small also gave Union Admiral Du Pont a rebel naval code book and information on the harbor defenses and the location of rebel troops.

Robert Small was awarded  $1,500 as his share of the in prize money from the CSS Planter, which was taken into the US Navy as the USS Planter.  In August 1862, Smalls traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Secretary of War Stanton and President Lincoln. He persuaded the president to permit black men to fight for the Union, receiving orders signed by Stanton permitting up to 5,000 African Americans to enlist in the Union forces at Port Royal.

Smalls then acted as pilot for the Union Navy around Charleston, serving as pilot on the Union ironclad Keokuk during a failed Union attack on Fort Sumter in April 1863.  In December 1863, Smalls was pilot on his old ship, renamed the USS Planter.  Caught in a cross-fire between Confederate and Union ships, the captain decided to surrender. Smalls, concerned that the black sailors aboard would be sold back into slavery or perhaps, be shot, once again took control of the Planter, piloting the ship to safety.  In recognition of his bravery,  Smalls was made captain of the USS Planter, becoming the first black captain in the US Navy.

After the war, Smalls became a major general in the South Carolina militia and a state legislator. He participated in drafting the constitution of the state in which he had been a slave. He was the most powerful black man in South Carolina for five decades.   Robert Smalls served five terms as a U.S. Congressman during Reconstruction. For nearly 20 years he served as U. S. Collector of Customs in Beaufort, S.C., where he lived as owner in the house in which he had been a slave.

In 2007, the logistics support vessel Major General Robert Smalls (LSV-8) was named in his honor. 

Photo: Reuters / Molly Riley

The USCGC Stratton is the Coast Guard’s newest cutter.  Built at  Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., she was acquired by the Coast Guard on September 2, 2011 and officially commissioned on  March 31, 2012.  Roughly a month after the 418′ foot long cutter went into service, however, the ship’s engineers discovered what is described as a “golf-ball sized” hole and four pin-hole leaks in its hull plating.  The ship is scheduled to enter a drydock for repairs and to determine the cause of the hull pitting.  The Coast Guard says that no similar problems have been found in the two other ships of the class.

Coast Guard’s newest ship filled with holes

The Stratton is part of the US Coast Guard’s 25-year, $24 billion, Integrated Deepwater System Program (IDS Program or Deepwater) to replace all or much of the United States Coast Guard’s fleet, including aircraft, ships, and logistics and command and control systems.  Over the last decade, it has had a very difficult start.

The Stratton is the third National Security Cutter (NSC), also referred to as Legends Class Cutter.  As reported by GlobalSecurity.org : By early 2007 it appeared that the NSC, as designed and constructed, will not meet performance specifications described in the original Deepwater contract. Specifically, due to design deficiencies, the NSC’s structure provides insufficient fatigue strength to be deployed underway for 230 days per year over its 30-year operational service life under Caribbean (General Atlantic) and Gulf of Alaska (North Pacific) sea conditions.  Ironically, the design of the Stratton was modified, with additional structure added to meet these concerns, at an added cost of approximately $15 million.

Other “Deepwater” program have also had serious problems. As part of IDS, the Coast Guard decided to modify and lengthen 49 off the highly successful 110′ Island Class Cutter.  Eight cutters were lengthened by 13′ feet at a cost of roughly $100 million in 2005 and 2006. Shortly after these cutters were returned to service, their hulls and decks began to buckle during operation.  All eight cutters have since been pulled from service and are expected to be scrapped. In August of last year, the Coast Guard filed a law suit against the shipyard who performed the modifications.  Nevertheless, the Coast Guard has come under severe criticism for its mis-management of the program.

If Kafka Designed and Built Boats for the Coast Guard…

Stepping the Masts in Boston

Thanks to Tom Russell of the  Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in Group for pointing out the video.

Victims of Philly duck boat crash settle suit for $17M

In a criminal case, last November, Matthew Devlin, the mate on watch on the tug Caribbean Sea, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the casualty.

In another move to assert sovereignty over disputed waters in the South China Sea, China’s first deep-water drilling rig began operations near islands in the South China Sea.  Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, said its semi-submersible CNOOC 981 began drilling yesterday 199 miles southeast of Hong Kong at a depth of 1,500 meters in an area north of the Paracel islands claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan.

As reported by Bloomberg Business Week: Competition for energy reserves in the sea has increased tensions as countries shun joint development and improve their respective naval capabilities. Chinese vessels have confronted Vietnamese survey ships over the past year and have been locked in a monthlong standoff with Philippine boats over a disputed island in another area of the sea.

While thus far the disputes have remained within the region, the region, as the Philippines is a US ally there is the risk that the Unated States could be drawn into the conflict.  Benjamin Carlson, writing in the Global Post asks: Is this Cold War 2.0?

This scuffle is merely one of dozens of overlapping, contradictory claims for territory in the South China Sea, where the nations of Southeast Asia are facing off against an increasingly assertive China — and against one another.  

“China certainly shares much of the blame for the current standoff. Its claims to the South China Sea, based on limited historical evidence, do not provide a significant basis to make sweeping, unilateral assertions,” says Andrew Billo of the Asia Society.

Where does the US fit into this toxic brew of jingoism, nationalism, and disputed territory? Its strategic shift to the Pacific, geopolitical rivalry with China, and alliance with the Philippines have inescapably drawn American interests to the Asian hotspot.

In early May, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlined America’s emerging priorities in the South China Sea: freedom of navigation, unimpeded commerce, maintenance of peace and stability, and respect for international law. 

Beyond that, the sea plays an enormously valuable role as the international highway of global trade. Half of all the world’s intercontinental goods pass through the South China Sea, amounting to $1.2 trillion in trade with the US every year, according to a January report from the Center for New American Security. And its untapped energy resources are vast: 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and as much as 130 billion barrels of oil are estimated to lie undiscovered beneath the seabed.

Recently the Christian Science Monitor argued that the UN  Law of the Sea Treaty would help the US counter China’s aggressive moves to claim islands near the Philippines and other Asian neighbors. Senate Republicans have blocked ratification of the treaty which was negotiated by the previous Bush Administration.

Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to this post.

WWII Liberty ship like the John Harvey

Yesterday, we posted the obituary of Claude Holloway, a British Motor Torpedo Boat commander, who heroically saved  dozens of sailors in the German attack on Bari, Italy in 1943.  Holloway was nearly killed by mustard gas bombs secretly carried aboard the American Liberty ship, SS John Harvey.  Ironically, the explosion of this secret mustard gas and its terrible aftermath, may have helped save countless lives.

The SS John Harvey was carrying a secret cargo of 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs.  The use of chemical weapons in war was banned by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. There was, however, no ban on their manufacture or transport. (That ban was not enacted until 1972.)  The Allies were concerned that the Germans might use chemical weapons in World War II and wanted to be in a position to retaliate if such weapons were used against them.

In August of 1943, Roosevelt approved the shipment of chemical munitions containing mustard agent to the Mediterranean theater.  Two thousand mustard bombs were loaded onto the USS John Harvey, commanded by Captain Elwin F. Knowles. The ship was waiting to unload in Bari, Italy when German planes attacked on December 2, 1943.

The John Harvey exploded, killing all of its crew and spreading liquid mustard gas across the harbor in the air and the water.  As the cargo was secret, no one in the harbor knew that the clear chemical with a slight garlic odor was deadly, until the effects became evident.  628 military victims were hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and by the end of the month, 83 of them had died. The number of civilians hurt or killed by the mustard gas was never recorded. The existence of the mustard gas continued to be kept secret after the explosion.

Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Francis Alexander, an American doctor from New Jersey and an expert on chemical warfare, was sent by the Deputy Surgeon General of the US Army to figure out what had happened.  After running numerous test and plotting the effected area, he was able to determine that the agent was mustard gas and the center of the explosion was the SS John Harvey.  In the process of testing for the unknown agent, Dr. Alexander observed that mustard gas kills white blood cells.  White blood cells are capable of rapidly dividing, which prompted Dr. Alexander to wonder whether it might also be useful in killing rapidly dividing cancer cells, as well.

Based on Dr. Alexander’s field work, two pharmacologists at Yale, Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman, who had been hired by the military to study the possible uses for mustard gas, developed the first anti-cancer chemotherapy drug, mechlorethamine, to treat lymphoma.  Mechlorethamine was the first of many alkylating antineoplastic agents, a major class of chemotherapy drugs, which would be developed to combat a variety of cancers.

How many have been saved by cancer drugs as a result of the tragedy of Bari and the SS John Harvey?  Would these drugs have been developed independently?  How much longer would it have taken to develop them?  One writer, Paul Drye, refers to the SS John Harvey as the “Saviour of Millions.”  Whether or not this is an exaggeration, it is hard not to be struck by the irony that the most deadly of weapons, indeed one of the few weapons considered too horrible to use on the battle field, would prove crucial in developing life saving drugs to fight the deadliest of diseases. .